The present invention relates to a method of navigating a moving means, in particular a vehicle, a motor vehicle, a ship or an airplane for navigation from an initial point to a point of destination, with a destination guiding device provided in the moving means for guiding the same along a computed route from the initial point to the destination point.
The invention also relates to a navigation system for a moving means, in particular for a vehicle, a motor vehicle, a ship or an airplane.
In moving means such as for example motor vehicles, airplanes or ships, fixedly installed navigation systems guide a driver of the moving means, in a fast, simple and reliable way from an actual standing point to a desired destination point, without a complicated planning by the driver of the moving means in advance and a corresponding map material. For this purpose the corresponding navigation data, such as for example based on maps, land maps or street maps, are stored in the navigation system for example on CD-ROM. The navigation device uses in particular GPS (Global Positioning System) to determine an instantaneous standing point and to calculate the corresponding navigation instructions which lead to a predetermined destination. The navigation data contain preferably data about streets and paths for a motor vehicle.
Before the navigation system takes its objective and can calculate a route from the standing point to the destination point, it is however necessary that the user inputs the desired destination point and in some cases, in the navigation devices without GPS, also the actual standing point. This is performed for example through a manually operated input device. Letters of a character table are inquired or scrolled one after the other and selected until the selected letters and numerals, for example for a location name, a street name, or a house number of a destination point or the standing point. This is however complicated and time consuming and requires certain basic knowledge by the operator of the navigation system.
Accordingly, it is an object of present invention to provide an improved method of navigating and a navigating system of the above mentioned general type, which avoid the disadvantages of the prior art and can be operated in a simple and comfortable manner.
In keeping with these objects and with others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of present invention resides, briefly stated in a method of navigating a movable means, in accordance with which before boarding a movable means, at least one destination point is inputted into one data processing device which is for example external to the moving means, at least one route is calculated in the external data processing device, and corresponding route data are transmitted through a transmission line to the destination guiding device.
When the method is performed in accordance with the present invention, it has the advantage that the input of the data or options relevant for the route computation is performed substantially in a more comfortable and simple manner at a home desk or in the office, for example a personal computer, and in the destination guiding device all necessary preparations for a destination guidance are completed when a user, for example a car driver, boards the moving means, for example a motor vehicle. This is especially advantageous in winter, since the driver must not be involved in programming in a cold vehicle of its navigation system for navigation, but instead must start driving. Furthermore, due to the higher storage capacity of the external data processing device, it is possible to introduce substantially more and flexible as well as actual information of the calculated route, such as for example information about hotels, gasoline sources, etc. For shipping enterprises, already in the office the logistics of cost and time saving routes can be calculated and transmitted to the out-of-office vehicles, so that an accurate and simple planning and use of a navigation system is possible.
An expansion of the information for the driver of the moving means is obtained when in accordance with the present invention, additional information, for example about the computed routes, are read from a memory of the external data processing device, and transmitted with the route data to the moving means.
Preferably, in addition the initial point is inputted in the external data processing device. This is especially advantageous when the instantaneous processing device or the moving means is not the desired initial point for the route computation. Thereby other routes can be computed in the device and submitted to the destination guiding device.
For accurate initialization of the destination guidance, after the transmission of the route to the destination guiding device, from it the initial point is determined as an instantaneous standing point of the moving means. This is performed for example by a GPS detection (GPS is Global Positioning System), which provides an additional higher accuracy when compared with the manually inputted point into the data processing device.
Preferably, a transmission line can be formed as an infrared or radio connection and the external data processing device can use a personal computer. In accordance with the present invention, also a navigation system is proposed, in which an interface is provided for wireless connection with a local data processing device located in the region of parking of the moving means, for transmission of route data from the data processing device to the navigation system.
This has the advantage that the input of the relevant data or options for the route computation is performed more comfortable and simpler at a home desk or in the office, for example with a personal computer, while in the destination guiding device all required preparations are completed for a destination guidance when a user, for example a car driver, boards the moving means, for example a motor vehicle.
This is especially advantageous in winter, since the driver for navigation must not do programming in a cold car on its navigation system, but instead can start driving. Further, because of the high capacity of the external data processing device, it is possible to introduce substantially more and flexible or actual information in the calculated route, such as for example information about hotels, gasoline stations, etc. In shipping enterprises, in the office the logistic of cost and time-minimal routes are calculated and transmitted to the out-of-office vehicles, so that an accurate and comfortable planning and use of a navigation system is possible. In accordance with a preferable embodiment, the interface is formed as an infrared or radio connection, for example an HF-connection with 433 MHz and the local data processing device is a personal computer.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the present invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.